"Portable" is a term used for applications that are installed onto a portable storage device (most commonly a USB memory stick) rather than onto a single host.

This technique has become very popular for Windows applications, as it allows a user to make use of their own software on typical publically accessible computers at libraries, hotels and internet cafes.

Converting a Windows application into portable form has a specific set of challenges, as the application has no access to the Windows registry, no access to "My Documents" type directories, and does not exist at a reliable filesystem path (because the portable storage medium can be mounted at an arbitrary volume or filesystem location).

Portable provides a methodology and implementation to support the creating of "Portable Perl" applications and distributions.

While this will initially be focused on a Windows implementation, wherever possible the module will be built to be platform-agnostic in the hope that future versions can support other operating systems, or work across multiple operating systems.

This module is not ready for public use. For now, see the code for more details on how it works...